Halloween Learning

Wednesday I woke up with dread in my heart. Halloween...26 kids...report-card writing hangover...all spells bad news in the middle of the week. But my little monsters made me proud. They moved through Halloween-themed learning centres all morning and had a great time! The favourite was the pumpkin decorating centre. A Kinder Grandma had donated 12 pumpkins to the class so we painted and collaged to our heart's content. They turned out great! They just love to learn. I love that about this age group.

So now report cards are written and Halloween is done, all I have left is 26 parent-teacher interviews to do. I've never been this tired by October before. My soap opera life always keeps me on the go. We are still waiting for a long-term care bed for my husband and in the meantime it is a struggle to keep us with his needs. We have a sewer problem right now and an ice dam over the door because of the foot and a half of snow that dumped in one 24 hour period 2 weeks ago. But my sister and niece are here and we are learning how to work as a family. It is so nice not to be alone in this drama. Once we all recover from the flu and are healthy again then I think we will find a rhythm of life that works for us.

When the going gets tough...

September has been a long journey for me and I have learned a lot about teaching, about myself and about my own family. I have had some very difficult classes, difficult students who required so much patience that I often wondered at my own ability to give it. But my situation right now is neither of those. It is a swirl of trying to learn a new role, balancing home and school, dealing with painful issues resulting from my husband's decline and the demands of my children for whatever is left to give them at the end of a very long day. I am depleted.

I've thought about erasing this blog. It was meant to be an exciting chronicle of my adventure in teaching K/1 and trying to implement a reggio philosophy. Each time I come to the computer and think about writing I turn away because the truth is too painful and it would just be silly to pretend on my little blog read by none. Yet I'm not brave enough to put it all out there.

I miss the glow of a wonderful teaching day more than I can say. I'm trusting that this shall pass and I will find a way to move through this mess of my life with more peace and more grace for myself. My students deserve a better teacher than I am right now. I love them very much. Can anyone except teachers understand that fierce love we develop for our students?

When the going gets tough...

Overload

There are just too many good ideas out there. I am in the middle of a mind explosion, trying to decide how I will incorporate some new ideas while keeping the things that have worked well for me. I love to try new things but sometimes I try too many new things. Is anyone else like that? So then I have to abandon something before really giving it a chance because I was trying to implement too much. Actually, slowing down is going to be my new resolution. Teaching a K/1 split will require that. Kinders need more time to practice skills and I need to give them the time they need instead of rushing them along. I firmly believe in differentiation and have followed that model for years. I just need to be aware of setting down good solid foundations to build on. Now I just have to sort through my goals and choose the most important to implement. Wish me luck!

Family Vacation...minus one

I haven't been too worried about posting on my little blog with its audience of one. It is nice to just write out my thoughts so they aren't cluttering up my mind. We are on our family vacation on Galiano Island, BC. It is fantastic to be here and my kids are experiencing so many firsts...first drive through the mountains, first glimpse of the ocean, first touch of a starfish, first hike through the BC rainforests. But my husband is not here and this vacation was supposed to be a special family time. He just wasn't well enough to come and it was hard to leave him at the hospital for respite while we drove off for 2 weeks of fun. Each moment is bittersweet like a shadow of what it could have been if we were whole. I'm looking forward to getting back to life, school, schedule and the roles we have begun to accept as our reality. Looking at our crazy life from 2 provinces away I can see more beauty in it than when I was in the midst of the whirlwind. All of the medical intrusions and balancing of home, school, and disease seems more worthwhile than it did before, less of a terrified scrabbling to keep up. This disease has taken much and will take more before it finally leaves our family some peace but there must be a way to find more magic moments. I will look for them. But for today...I'll revel in the squeals of delight as my children race along the rocky beaches and chase the tiny crabs.

It's All Too Much...Classrooms

So here's my problem. I participated in a wonderful conference on creating a classroom environment that addresses the attention issues so many of our students have. It was full of great, wonderful advice that I truly understood the need for. Monochromatic color schemes, orderly and organized spaces, seating that meets the needs of different types of students.
   The problem came when they arrived at visual clutter and began to describe how a student with an attention problem might experience a typical classroom. Are they listening to me or staring at the bright, primary colored alphabet above my head? Am I asking them to look at the whiteboard and focus when I have covered every spare inch with good, educational, cute, awesome stuff? Is everything in my room laminated making it difficult to read because of the glare? Do you see the problem? Can you hear me screaming silently in my head at the presenters as they tell me that what I have been spending enormous amounts of time on may in fact be derailing my teaching???
   So here's the deal. I can no longer look at all of the cute and wonderful teachery things without asking myself, "will this help my students learn?" If the answer is no then I walk away(most of the time). I try to keep a single color background and place only the most essential things on my walls but I don't want the room to look bare and uncared for. I use student work to decorate and try to keep a lot of my decorations organic. There are so many teachers posting their classroom designs right now and I truly enjoy looking at each one. They are like works of art. But in some cases I think it is good to remind ourselves who the classroom is for and how we can use our space to really impact students. Sometimes I wish I had never attended that conference. I am such a push-over for themes and matching. Saying that, I absolutely think you can do a theme well and still have a clam and inviting classroom that doesn't steal your students' attention away from you!



The following photos are not of my own classroom(I grit my teeth as I wait to be allowed in...). They are inspiration only.

Monster colours freebie

I loved these little poems that Mrs. Schmeltzer shared on her blog so I decided to make a book for them. My kinders will copy the colour words and my ones will write the whole sentence.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B24nKv08sK57R3BFRVA5OEwzRUk/edit

I've never done this before so I hope it works!

Blog Stalker

I have been a secret blog stalker all year. I am amazed how it has impacted my teaching and each time I buy something from a teacher I cheer inside that we are finally sharing our wealth of talent with each other. I think I'm ready to quit stalking and join the community but ladies you sure are a talented bunch of teachers and I am intimidated.